ing the Flora and Falcon. The commander of the garrifon, fir Robert Pigot, made every preparation for a vigorous defence; and lord Howe, being at length reinforced by several ships from England part of a fquadron commanded by admiral Byron, tardily dispatched after the TouIon fleet-immediately ftood out to fea, though ftill inferior in force, in order to give battle to the French admiral, who feemed not unwilling to accept the challenge. After much maneuvering for the weather-gage, the fleets were separated by a violent tempeft, by which the great ships of the French fquadron were fo much damaged that it was deemed by count d'Estaing abfolutely neceffary to steer for the port of Boston to refit. General Sullivan was in confequence compelled with chagrin and reluctance to withdraw his troops from Rhode Island.

After the ftorm, or rather during the form, when the fury of it had in fome degree fubfided, the Renown of fifty guns, captain Dawson, fell in with the Languedoc of ninety guns, D'Estaing's own fhip, which had loft both her rudder and her mafts, whom he engaged with fuch advantage as to flatter him with the prospect of an immediate capture, when the appearance of feveral other fhips of the fquadron compelled him to defift. Captain Raynor in the Ifis, and captain Hotham in the Prefton, both of fifty guns, fought with great

great gallantry the Zelé of feventy-four, and the Tonnant of eighty-but no fhip on either fide ftruck her colors. Lord Howe, with all poffible expedition, followed his antagonist to Boston, in the hope of a favorable opportunity of attack; but found the French fleet lying in Nantasket Road, fo well defended by the forts and batteries erected on the points of land and the islands adjacent, that it was adjudged abfolutely impracticable. Soon after this (October 1778) lord Howe quitted the command to admiral Gambier, having acquired in the courfe of the campaign much reputation by his skilful and vigorous. exertions in a fituation peculiarly critical and hazardous.

The projects of count d'Estaing being effectually difconcerted in America, he failed in the beginning of November to the West Indies, in order to fecond the operations of the marquis de Bouillé, governor of Martinico, who had already captured the important island of Dominique, to which he granted terms fo favorable that the inhabitants had little reafon to regret the change of mafters. On the very fame day that the French fleet left Bofton, a detachment of five

thousand troops, under convoy of a small squadron commanded by commodore Hotham, failed from Sandy Hook, and arrived, fortunately without encountering the enemy in their courfe,

at Barbadoes, December 10 (1778). Without fuffering the troops to difembark, an expedition was immediately refolved upon against the island of St. Lucia, where on the 13th a landing was effected. By the active exertions of general Meadows and admiral Barrington, upon whom the command had now devolved, feveral of the advanced pofts were carried, when count d'Estaing appeared in view with a far fuperior force, having on board a large body of troops, with which he hoped to effect the entire reduction of the English iflands. The fquadron of admiral Barrington confifted only of three fhips of the line, two of fifty guns, and three frigates, which he ftationed acrofs the entrance of the Careenage, fupported by feveral batteries erected on fhore. On the morning of the 15th of December the French admiral bore down with ten fail of the line, but met with fo gallant a reception that he thought proper in a fhort time to draw off. In the afternoon he renewed the attack with his whole fquadron, and a furious cannonade, directed chiefly against admiral Barrington's divifion, was kept up for feveral hours, without making any impreffion upon the English line; and the French admiral was again obliged to defift from his attack. He now landed a body of five thousand troops, and, putting himself at their head, marched with great refolution to the

affault

affault of the British lines: but they were received by general Meadows with the fame determined valour as they had before experienced from admiral Barrington; and being repulfed with great lofs, the count re-embarked his troops, and left the inland to its fate. It foon after furrendered to the British arms on honorable terms of capitulation, and this conqueft was confidered as much more than an equivalent for the lofs of Dominique.

On the continent of America the war ftill raged with dreadful and unremitted malignity. In confequence of the horrid mode of warfare adopted by the court of Great Britain, which in the midst of pleasure and feftivity iffued its orders to defolate and deftroy, an expedition was undertaken by a colonel Butler, in conjunction with one Brandt, an half Indian by birth, and a man beyond example cruel and ferocious, against the beautiful and flourishing fettlement of Wyoming.

*When we confider the round of amusement and diffipation in which the English court was engaged at a crifis fo full of horror-the St. James's balls, the Windfor galas, the Buckingham-House concerts, fuppers and card parties, it brings to recollection the retort of a brave French officer, who, being asked by his fovereign Charles VII, then in danger of dethronement by the English, what he thought of his arrangements for an approaching fête, replied, " I think, fire, that it is impoffible for any one to lose his kingdom more pleasantly than your majesty."

This was an infant rifing colony, fituated on the eastern branch of the Sufquehanna, confifting of eight townships, in a country and climate luxuriantly fertile.

In the month of July, 1778, the enemy appeared in force to the number of about fixteen hundred men, of whom about one-fourth were Indians, and immediately invefted the fort. The commandant knowing its inability to make any effectual defence, difpatched a flag to colonel Butler, to know what terms he would grant on a furrender; to which he replied in two words, THE HATCHET. The garrifon, though refolute to fell their lives as dear as poffible, were foon overpowered; and the favage conquerors, after gratifying their infernal rage by a most bloody military execution, fhut up the remainder in the barracks, to which they fet fire, and confumed the whole in one general blaze. The entire fettlement was now delivered up to all the horrors of Indian barbarity, of which the detail is not to be endured. A terreftrial paradife was in a fhort time converted into a frightful wafte; and men, women, and children, underwent one common butchery, in all the poffible varieties of torture. A provincial officer, of the name of Bedlock, being ftripped naked, had his body ftuck full of fharp pine fplinters; and a heap of knots of the fame wood being then